The Gaza Flotilla of Hypocrisy

Yoram EttingerJerusalem Cloakroom #236, June 18, 2010

1.400,000 Uzbek refugees, and 2,000 fatalities, during June 11-18, 2010 riots in Kyrgyzstan; 3 million refugees in Pakistan during 2009 and 600,000 refugees in the Philippines during 2008; No international investigations; No UN special sessions; No UN special agencies set – such a UNRWA for the 350,000 1948/9 Palestinian refugees – for assistance, protection and advocacy of these refugees.

2.Joel Brinkley, Stanford University Communications Department and nationally-syndicated columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner for international reporting, former New York Times Bureau Chief in Jerusalem (San Francisco Chronicle, June 13, 2010):

“On May 31, the day activists assaulted Israeli troops as they boarded the Mavi Marmara, prompting the Israelis to shoot and kill nine of them.In Lahor, Pakistan, that same day, gunmen stormed into a hospital, where they shot and killed 12 badly wounded patients...Those victims were survivors of murderous attacks on two mosques a few days earlier, when 93 worshipers were killed…Didn’t that warrant even a nodding acknowledgment? No, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said almost nothing about the dead Pakistanis, but did manage to declaim: ‘I unequivocally condemn what appears to be disproportionate use of force, resulting in the killing and wounding of so many people attempting to bring much needed aid to the people of Gaza…’ The week before the aid-flotilla incident, international discussions centered on North Korea and its attack on a South Korean naval vessel.A torpedo sank the ship, killing 46 sailors. The UN Security Council was to begin discussion of possible action against North Korean.But the a few days ago, Council members made it clear they were going to drop the North Korea matter and take a resolution condemning Israel…At the same time, all of the blame for the sad state of affairs in Gaza falls on Israel, even though Egypt usually keeps its gates to Gaza locked tight, too…’From our ideological point of view, it is not allowed to recognize that Israel controls one square meter of historic Palestine, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hams leader, told me. Ismail Abu Shanab suggested: ‘There are a lot of open areas in the US that could absorb the Jews [of Israel]…’ Hamas leaders are single minded…Last week these leaders made their position clear. They fired four missiles into Israel…”

3. Christopher Caldwell, senior editor at The Weekly Standard, contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times and Washington Post (Financial Times, June 4, 2010):

“Imagine the dangers, if, during the Cold War, non-governmental organizations from the Soviet Bloc had sailed flotillas into US waters to protest about racial conflicts or into British waters to protest against IRA internment… Protecting borders is about sovereignty, not sentiments. The fact that, say, a door-to-door evangelist wants to save your soul rather than rob you, does not give him the right to enter your house. The insistence that Israel behaved stupidly rests on the idea that it had other options… Let the boat through, and you have issued an invitation to Iran and others to re-arm Hamas. Stop the boat and you have an ‘incident’…Israel has been held responsible for the actions of others – notably, this week - for the deterioration in its relationship with Turkey… [But,] the deterioration of Turkish-Israeli relations has proceeded steadily since Erdogan brought the AK party to power. Erdogan wants a more Islamic Turkey…Turkey’s growing hostility to Israel is a cause, not a consequence, of the Mavi Marmara incident…The most alarming think this week was not the raid.It was the way internet opinion fell in behind activist opinion, and then the opinions of political and journalistic elites fell into line with the web…”